Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion to take note of answers to questions about cuts to disability and education funding. Despite the questions that Labor asked in question time today, the question which the apprentice working under 'the fixer', Senator Birmingham, could not answer was: 'Why are parents of children with disability here in the parliament today?' I can answer that question. They are here because funding has been cut to their children's schools and to their education. And, if we want equality of opportunity, it means that some people need more support to get through the education system than others—and that is a fair thing, because we do want all of our children, regardless of their circumstance, to succeed at school.

When Labor was in government, we achieved a bipartisan commitment to the introduction of a disability loading as part of the national education reform, and that was for the 2015 school year. This promise reflected Australia's commitment to progressing the rights and equal opportunities of people with disability. Of course, because the Abbott team was so desperate to get elected, they made promise after promise, none of which have been kept, all of which have been broken. The promise of bipartisanship on funding to students with disabilities went by the wayside. It just disappeared. That is why parents are here today with their children—to really push home the message to the Abbott government that this is not fair, that the funding that was promised, the bipartisanship that was promised, should be something the government commits to. There will be weasel words and they will wriggle and they will carry on and they will talk about Labor. They cannot talk about their own policies, because their own policies clearly are about cuts. Otherwise, why would parents be here today? They are here because they are seeing firsthand that that bipartisan approach is now broken. Like the PM's promise, it is broken. It will affect around 100,000 students.

Why would the Abbott government disadvantage 100,000 students in getting a good education? They are just pawns in the game, like everyone else: pensioners, our health system, and on and on the list goes. Children with disability are the latest pawns in the Abbott government's litany of broken promises. Of course children with disability face severe disadvantage at school: a limited choice of school, discrimination, bullying, limited or no funding for support and resources, sometimes not appropriate access to trained staff, and having to contend with the culture of low expectations. And where will the money come from to support those children at school? Does the Abbott government seriously think that parents have to put their hand in their pocket or that somehow there are schools that can twist their funding and put a little bit more money the way of children with disabilities? Is that what the coalition government expects?

Certainly in my state of Western Australia, where the state government has imposed the most severe cuts we have seen in the history of education in Western Australia, this puts those students with disadvantage in a much worse position. In Western Australia we have high schools that have lost $1 million in funding and primary schools in the most disadvantaged areas that have lost half a million dollars. Of course that equates to staff numbers. Of course that equates to the amount of time that you can give to children with disability, or to any other disadvantaged group in a school. And now, on top of this, we have the broken promise from the Abbott government.

Throwing away bipartisanship in relation to children with disability is part of a legacy that will take years and years to address in my state of Western Australia—and I imagine right across the country. That is the reason we have parents in the parliament today. That is the reason we have children with disability here today, staring the Abbott government in the face, making sure that the Abbott government absolutely understands that its broken promise on education— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.